By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)
June 13, 2000

Trading at $13 as of June 9, 2000

Dad, like countless millions, you are hooked on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The show's success has done wonders for ABC and its Goofy parent Disney (NYSE: DIS). Yet, few investors have come to realize what a dramatic impact the popular game show has had on digital-world megaportal GO.com (NYSE: GO).

Quiz-hungry contestants have been heading out to ABC.com to take the chair opposite a virtual Regis in droves. With five million players of the Enhanced TV version, the network's site has seen its traffic grow by 40% over the past year.

The cyber hopefuls come to stay, too. The average player spends 41 minutes on the site -- that is more than the typical entire Internet session. What's even more compelling is that visitors to the popular online trivia bouts have also been exposed to the other GO.com offerings.

They are now getting their online news from ABCNews.com, which is backed by Internet-exclusive daily webcasts by Sam Donaldson and an opt-in e-mail list featuring Peter Jennings. GO.com sites like parenting-haven Family.com have flourished as well.

It's not all Regis of course. ESPN.com and Disney.com have been hot destinations long before "Is that your final answer?" became a catch phrase. Every single month for the past year, Disney.com has been the top entertainment destination for kids and families. ESPN.com draws more sports enthusiasts than the two next-largest dedicated sites combined. In that sense, it goes without saying how lucrative it is for GO.com to also handle the official NBA.com, NFL.com, and NASCAR.com sites.

While the enormous success of Millionaire is definitely important, it is not the only ace in GO.com's hand -- though it has helped fuel ABC's interactive flavor. Network offerings like Drew Carey, Spin City, and Politically Incorrect have had their high-tech online tie-ins. Yet, even as ABC struggled in prime time pre-Regis, it has dominated the daytime soaps consistently for decades.

So, as record numbers might tune in to see Hayley and Mateo's wedding on All My Children on June 16 (the Friday that kicks off Father's Day weekend, no less) GO.com's new soap site has visitors voting on Hayley's wedding dress. Someone is actually going to win the dress after the show. What's that? Hey, I don't know who Hayley and Mateo are either, Dad -- but it seems like a big to-do in the serial world.

By now I trust you've come to appreciate GO.com's portfolio. Did I mention that they also own Movies.com? I didn't get into e-commerce. DisneyStore.com is probably one of the few entities with such a devoted following that it can conduct business online without having to discount heavily to close a sale.

Yes, there is so much to the GO.com story. There was a time when the company was simply Infoseek, just another popular search engine -- seemingly indistinguishable from the rest. With Disney's 72% ownership and content rejuvenation, the company has repositioned itself as the definitive entertainment portal. And, I think as more and more users embrace broadband, rich, streaming entertainment media is what folks will flock to in the online realm.

Oh, let's put this into perspective. With last month's Lycos (Nasdaq: LCOS) buyout news, don't expect offers to come flying in for GO.com. The company's content is so embedded into Disney's offerings, that I can't fathom who would want to take a shot. Maybe some of the site's individual properties like MrShowbiz.com or Movies.com are sought after properties, but to invest in GO.com is to invest in the sum of GO.com.

MediaMetrix reports that the GO.com network generated more than 22 million unique visitors for the month of April. Lycos, with 50% more users, was offered a buyout initially priced at 500% of GO.com's market cap of $2 billion. Again, GO.com isn't going to get any buyout offers from anyone other than Disney -- if that. Still, there is value in being the sixth most popular online destination, and it's easy to argue how unique GO.com's offerings have become in the cookie-cutter online space.

In closing, Pops, you know I cover Disney for the new Motley Fool Research. You've joked how all the trips we took to Walt Disney World together have finally paid off. Well, here is my chance to pay you back. So many people are passing GO.com lately -- isn't it time you collected your $200? Don't let Rich Uncle Pennybags have all the fun. I love you Dad.

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